Just a professor standing in front of BlueSky demoralized because exams my students used to get a mean of 83% on prior to 2020 are now failed in large numbers. It seems that their ability to APPLY concepts to new contexts/domains has all but disappeared.

I love these students & I am worried.

Journal of Fandom Studies 14.1 is out now! Articles include:

The scapegoating of the Angry Video Game Nerd, by Matt Foy
doi.org/10.1386/jfs_...

Journal of Fandom Studies 14.1 is out now! Articles include:

‘OG D&D’: Analysing aspects of fandom cultural capital in contentious Dungeons & Dragons social media, by Steven Dashiell
doi.org/10.1386/jfs_...

Journal of Fandom Studies 14.1 is out now! Articles include:

‘She who must not be named’: Harry Potter fans’ identity change amid the author’s transphobia, by Tierra James, Jacob Church, Brianna Turgeon, Leonela Martinez Ramirez, Ariel Vicars, Alicia Carter
doi.org/10.1386/jfs_...

JFS 14.1 is out now! Articles include:

Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs present: Exploring eudaimonia, queer readings, character identification and the sexual self-concept among LGBTQ+ Harry Potter and Marauders fans, by Leah Dajches, Heather Gahler
doi.org/10.1386/jfs_...

Journal of Fandom Studies 14.1 is out now! Articles include:

Quantifying passion from casual observer to devoted fan: Introducing the fanship scale, by Caleb George Hubbard
doi.org/10.1386/jfs_...
intellectdiscover.com/content/jour...

Journal of Fandom Studies 14.1 is out now! Book Reviews include:
Disability and Fandom, Katherine Anderson Howell (2025)
Reviewer: Lauren Rouse
doi.org/10.1386/jfs_...
intellectdiscover.com/content/jour...

Journal of Fandom Studies 14.1 is out now! Book Reviews include:
Fame and Fandom: Functioning On and Offline, Celia Lam, Jackie Raphael, Renee Middlemost and Jessica Balanzategui (eds) (2022)
Reviewer: Lauren Nicole Balser
doi.org/10.1386/jfs_...

Where Should Journalists Draw the Line With Fandom? ‘The Pitt’ outcry proves we need clear etiquette in journalism about fandoms.

*The Pitt* Fans Aren't Happy With Journalists. We Need Real Etiquette When Reporting on Fandom

www.teenvogue.com/story/journa...

A promotional image for The Pitt. Actor Noah Wyle looks concerned? worried? dubious? over a patient.

Ask me for contact info for a CNN reporter seeking experts about The Pitt fandom. If so, please talk to them about the assumptions they're starting off with. A small sample: "Are they watching the series "incorrectly"...? How rare is it for fans to react this way to a show they love so fiercely?"

See the first close-up photos of the moon from NASA's Artemis II mission The crew spent about seven hours circling the moon, taking photographs and making observations of never-before-seen features.

See the first close-up photos of the moon from NASA's Artemis II mission:

The deleterious effects of not having a hobby are becoming a defining point in this cultural moment—and who is poised to help? That’s right: the autistics. Job fair day where we all set up tables explaining our deep dives and give people a hand out, a path back to society.

I have to admit, this made me tear up a bit.
I'm a sentimental old fool.

Heather Cox Richardson has a larger audience than almost any dudefluencer. More informed. Better values & policy preferences. And yet there are no profiles, no elevation or lionization, because there's *nothing* US media is less interested in than middle-aged lib women. No diner interviews for them.

• Global media industries and platformed TV
• Disability and romance
• Anti-fandom and fan discourses

• Genre aesthetics and transformation in romance and fanfiction
• Boundaries of fan practices and definitions
• Globalism and nationalism
• Transcultural and transnational media and fandom
• Global representations of queer men (yaoi, MM, slash, BL, etc.)
• Queer temporalities and yearning

• Celebrity and ‘queerbaiting’
• (Transformation of) Platform dynamics of fandom
• Short-form video and fandom
• Gender, masculinity, and sexuality in MM romance
• Female consumption of MM romance
• Fandom and the mainstream
• Representations of queer sex and desire

This Special Issue will explore the impact of Heated Rivalry in both subcultural fan spaces and mainstream pop culture. Suggested potential topics include:
• Sports fandom and sports romance
• Queerness in sports
• Politics of sports/NHL/PWHL
• Fandom studies and sports
• Celebrity and race

Journal of Fandom Studies Journal of Fandom Studies; Journal of Fandom Studies seeks to offer scholars a dedicated, peer-reviewed publication that promotes current scholarship into the fields of fan and audience studies across...

Special Issue Call for Papers: ‘Heated Rivalry: Queering Sports in Popular Culture’
www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-f...

Please send a 500–700-word abstract and a 100–200 word biography in one document to yvonne.gonzales@usc.edu by 13 April 2026.

Final articles will be 6,000- 9,000 words.

Yes, the ebook version is available elsewhere including the @subpress.bsky.social website:

subterraneanpress.com/constituent-...

A multicolored quilt made of of scraps with the words WE KNOW WHAT WE SAW staggered down it with a large beautiful eye centered between the words. The eye has a rainbow camera aperture as the iris. It is quilted densely.

Another resistance quilt finished this week. The eye is my own design, the letters are a fpp pattern by QuiltByNight, the rounded corners and black binding are meant to resemble the phones we the people are using to document the horrors and disprove the government’s lies about what they are doing.

Democratizing the arts looks like universal income, low-barrier grants for both emerging and working artists, well-funded municipal arts & recreation programs, vibrant third spaces, and a well-funded public school system with progressive curriculum.

Not a free pass for corporate-owned slop engines.

I'd watch a muppet show movie where the muppets infiltrate an academic conference.

A red hat, inspired by a symbol of resistance to Nazi occupation, gains traction in Minnesota A Minneapolis knitting shop has resurrected the design of a Norwegian cap worn to protest Nazi occupation. Its owner says the money raised from hat pattern sales will support the local immigrant commu...

Craftivism:
A red hat becomes a quiet form of protest in Minnesota www.npr.org/2026/01/31/n...

Most of my articles examine customizing, collecting, making, etc., so yeah, definitely.

Also, obligatory reminder about submitting to JFS....

Buy a thing. Customize the thing. Display the thing grouped with other things. Change the groupings every so often. Not a new thing, but a new way of seeing the thing each time makes it feel new. If that makes sense.

TAMU ended our women and gender studies program, degrees and certificates today. Apparently they aren’t allowed under the new don’t mention gender or sexuality in the classroom rules our board passed. I am so saddened by this. I worked as a grad asst to wmst (no gender in the 90s) for a few years

Some Great Resources for Acafannish Work – Part 1: Journals
rb.gy/uh5a60

Journal of Fandom Studies 13.2 is out now! Articles include:
Anime merchandising and consumption: Character perfume as a case study
By Hengrui Luo
doi.org/10.1386/jfs_...

Journal of Fandom Studies 13.2 is out now! Articles include:
Japanese male idols and the production and circulation of value
By Yunuen Ysela Mandujano-Salazar
doi.org/10.1386/jfs_...